Will Oracle's 'Standardization' Offset Linux Fragmentation?

Standing Apart or Banding Together?

October 31, 2006

By
Jacqueline Emigh

While Oracle's moves to provide enterprise-level support around Red Hat
Linux are stirring up controversy, the vendor's decision to join the Free
Standards Group (FSG), also unveiled last week, is capturing less attention. Yet is
it possible that Oracle's newly minted membership in the standards group
might actually help to dispel industry fragmentation?

In an interview with LinuxPlanet, Zemlin steered rather clear of making
direct predictions as to whether Oracle's support program will bring about
"forking," leading to the Oracle Linux "derivative" that Red Hat currently warns
about on its Web site.

But Zemlin strongly stressed the FSG's stance that, even among open source
organizations, compliance with open standards is the only way to make sure of
compatibility.

Oracle joined the FSG only a few days before issuing its announcements at
Oracle OpenWorld last week, according to Zemlin.

But Oracle had worked with the standards body for the past several years,
anyway, as an applications vendor, Zemlin said.

Oracle is now entering the FSG as a platinum member, meaning that it's
making the highest possible level of financial contribution. In contrast, Red Hat
is a not a platinum member--nor are other Linux distributors that are FSG
members, such as Novell, Mandriva, Turbolinux, and Red Flag, one of many
existing RHEL derivatives.

But regardless of amounts of financial contribution, FSG members can work
side by side each other at the workgroup level, Zemlin said.

In contrast, many Linux "community groups"--including those that are
developing RHEL derivative CentOS and Debian derivative Ubantu, for example-- are
also certifying their distributions to the FSG's Linux Standard Base (LSB),
even though they are not FSG members.

The FSG's LSB defines specifications around interfaces, rather than around
underlying architectures.

Zemlin cited three main "wells" for Linux software code: Debian and its
derivatives; RHEL and its derivatives; and Novell SuSE Linux.

A couple of weeks ago, the FSG launched the LSB Developer Network (LDN)--a
developer community loosely modeled after Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN)--in an effort to help drive more Linux applications from ISVs.

The LDN provides tools for certifying application compliance with the LSB,
among many other offerings.

On the whole, standardization also helps to combat "proprietary" behaviors
on the part of vendors, according to Zemlin.

"Oracle is taking the right road here. Oracle is supporting open source, and
Oracle wants to do so in a standardized way," Zemlin said, mentioning a
press release quote from Donald Deutsch, Oracle's VP of Standards, Strategy and
Architecture, as one indication of Oracle's intentions.

"Linux is a strategic platform for Oracle," Deutsch says in the Oracle
press release. "Because of that, we felt it's important that we extend our
commitment to standards-based computing and join the standardization authority for
the Linux community: the Free Standards Group."

Meanwhile, Red Hat is apparently cautioning customers that Oracle's emerging
Linux "derivative" might not turn out to be compliant with RHEL at an API
(application programming interface) or ABI (application binary interface)
level.

"The changes Oracle has stated they will make will result in a different
code base than Red Hat Enterprise Linux," according to a Q&A posted on Red Hat's Web site.

Oracle had articulated plans to release updates and bug fixes for its
customers through its Unbreakable Linux program.

Might it ever be possible for an existing FSG member, such as Red Hat, to
block another company, such as Oracle, from joining the FSG standards
consortium?

"Absolutely not," Zemlin answered. "There's no way anybody will be
precluded. Anybody can join."

But in Zemlin's opinion, it's only in the best financial interests of Linux
distributors to cooperate with each other, anyway.